Cubs Masochist

It’s easy to look at Spring Training games like they don’t matter because they don’t. Tournament seeds aren’t determined by Cactus League performance, the crazy-wonky stats don’t get put on the back of bubble gum cards and no team is thrown a parade for an excellent spring record.

So why is it great that Lou Piniella said, “I’m getting tired of losing ballgame, even in spring traning,” yesterday?

Because it shows that the captain of this ship cares about winning even when it doesn’t matter.

It’s hard to explain what’s happened at Wrigley Field over the past 25+ years. The Cubs have had far more lean years than they’ve had fat years and yet attendance records continue to be set. Cubdom stretches from sea to shining sea, and more than one party in more than one city would get thrown if they were to somehow be the last team standing in October. Everybody wants to have that magical afternoon, with the sun beating down on them as they soak in a game at the only existing National League ballpark that can lay claim to the statement, “Jackie Robinson once played baseball here.” Someone at Clark and Addison did an incredible job of marketing the club because they certainly couldn’t hang the advertising slogan on the idea “we win.”

Now we’re in the Lou era and heading up to Wrigley for a fun afternoon isn’t enough. He’s a guy who has won nearly everywhere he’s gone (no one could have won in Tampa Bay) and he knows he’s and the end of a career. It bothers him when games are given away late even when those games are played during the spring. He just doesn’t give the impression of being a guy who would shrug his shoulders and say, “beats me, dude,” which some Cub managers have done (have fun, Cincinnati).

And that’s a refreshing idea. This team has holes, it has question marks, and we’ll take a look at those in the next couple weeks. The only question the team doesn’t have is whether the manager has the right idea regarding what he’s supposed to do for the Cubs.

Lou has the right idea.